It’s the greatest tragedy of our capitalist system that our economy can’t yet support a world in which I just sit around all day and play PlanetSide 2. Instead I need to live with the guilt of never playing it enough, and assuage that guilt by writing about it coming updates. The game’s public roadmap was just updated to outline the next six months of development, and it looks like the massive, multiplayer shooter will be getting a new continent called Hossin in May.

Most of the updates are focused on re-balancing classes or vehicles, and the development team’s focus is guided by user voting and commenting. There are a few features, like Continental Locking, that will significantly re-structure the shape of PlanetSide 2’s war.

Right now, the game is a bit of a free-for-all: three factions fighting over three continents with constantly shifting frontlines. Continental Locking will make each of those three continents the home of one of the races, with warpgates connecting it to battle islands that sit between them. If you want to invade an enemy from your home continent, you’ll need to advance through those warpgates, through the battle island and onwards to the opposing continent. Hossin, when it launches in May, will sit in the middle, connected by three warp gates and home to no one but those who capture it through ceaseless war.

Probably the main thing that turned me off was population drop on my server, and a feeling that I’d seen everything. I can’t help but wonder how many more players they’d have right now if they’d have optimized it and had a better meta game at launch. It’s kinda too late now, which is sad because it had the potential to be huge IMO. Maybe the PS4 version will help revitalize it and keep it going.

It would have definitely have been better off if they’d kept it in beta longer. The fact that they didn’t have the chance to put a tutorial in or many other big features made that pretty obvious.

That being said, it’s not doing too bad right now. I think it’s had some of the highest numbers on in over a year. Probably due to the performance update and how badly BF4 has been doing. A lot of BF4 Youtubers have been doing content on it too.

It must truly suck to be playing on a dead server – everything interesting about the game comes from player behaviour. I’ve been lucky enough to be playing on Miller, the server with highest pop and highest level of outfit/faction organisation, and with the ‘lovely’ [source: Smith, 2014] RPS people.

Continental locking will provide some meaningful meta-game which is just what Planetside 2 needs. This will also cause the front-lines of battles to shift to new parts of the continents other than the handful of places where current fights take place. Big thumbs up!

Funny, my son just wanted to try and this and dragged me into it as well. We both have a good time playing it. I imagine we’ll stick with it for a while, though we haven’t paid and real cash for anything yet.

Like I said during BETA, and after. It will take 10 years for them to implement all continents, and continent lock. Meanwhile Planetside 1 came with all that, and great base design. Truly shows how bad PS2 is.

Hold up, its a genuinely good shooter and it is of much greater scale. Planetside 1 was a terrible shooter with a comparatively small scale. It was a fun game at the time, but not due to its core mechanics but instead due to the strength of the concept. PS2 is a GOOD GAME.

PS1, good base design? You mean trying to stuff 100 people into a bunch of cramped hallways? Grinding out a base for an hour until it’s energy was depleted? PS1 has lots of cool stuff that isn’t in PS2 (infil being an actual spy instead of sniper, cloaked ships, relevant emp grenades, etc.), but that is most definitely not among it. PS2 has a lot of very cool (and more varied) base designs, but unfortunately it’s mostly on the less important outpost types, where the big things like Biolabs and Amp stations are generally identical.

I just started playing this and I’m quite enjoying it. Be warned the pay model isnt the most generous (although everything aside from some cosmetics can be unlocked for free given enough time) and it is very grindy. It’s a great option for anyone looking for their next big fps though.

However, don’t try to play it alone! Seek out the RPS chaps, all of whom are lovely and see if it grabs you. The game only really becomes fun when you’re working with a group.

I do play with a group once or twice a week, but there are ways to have fun with the game alone. They do take having some more than the default equipment and avoiding the general zerg rush of your faction though.

The lack of loyalty and unity in this comment section both disappoints me, and, frankly, disgusts me. Auraxis needs hard men who are willing to do what it takes to return to Earth, and I can see I won’t find any individuals of sufficiently stout heart and unshakable conviction here.